mini loom – Felting and Fiber Studio

Wild and Crazy Yarns Woven then Felted

February 7, 2017 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 17 comments

I still had a bagful of yarns left over from my Wild Table Runner so I decided to do a little weaving with some odds and ends. It was a mixture of synthetic, wool and wool blends.

I used a black metallic acrylic yarn as the warp. It was a bit stretchy but I intended to felt it when finished so I wasn’t concerned.

Here it is still on the loom.

I went back and forth on what to use as the background. Finally I decided I wanted to keep the colors from getting lost and chose a white prefelt covered loosely with a white merino batt.

Here it is after felting. As you can see even the white merino is more beige than the white bamboo.

Its kind of wild, but fun. There is a lot of dimension since some of the warp and that crazy eyelash yarn are sticking up. Most everything else including the wide orange and purple synthetics felted in nicely.

Some closeups:

From the side:

It was fun to see how the different yarns reacted. I’m not quite sure of what it reminds me of, or what I’ll do with it. But it was a quick and easy project after traveling.

If you missed my Caribbean Inspiration you can see it here: https://feltingandfiberstudio.com/2017/01/30/some-inspiration-and-fun-from-the-caribbean/

Mini Weaving

November 19, 2016 Marilyn aka Pandagirl Comments 23 comments

It seems lately everyone is into weaving. This past summer I was shopping with my daughter in law at Joann’s and this mini loom caught my eye. I actually thought it might be something to do with the grandsons.

The last time I wove anything was on one of those metal looms using loops to make pot holders. Yeah, I’m showing my age.

I forgot about the loom when I got home then when I was gathering all my scraps for the 4th Quarter challenge I found it under a pile. Ok, let’s see how this works and what all the hoopla is about. Looks easy enough.

I have a tubful of yarn so that’s where I started. I thought an autumn theme would be nice. The black acrylic/wool combo also has a little silver bling, the pink ball is mohair and the multi colored yarn is thick and thin with a little blue and white thin threads. I also added some polyester and silk scraps and hand dyed boucle. The ball of yarn under the string is the alpaca I used to make my Ginkgo leaves a while back. Not pictured is hand dyed green pencil roving.

They don’t sell the warp so I decided to just use string. Besides I didn’t want to invest in anything if it was something that I wasn’t going to do a lot of.

I didn’t like using the shuttle, so I just used my fingers. Here it is on the loom:

Here’s a closeup:

The instructions were not helpful so I ended up finding a video online. I used the alpaca as fringe. I wasn’t following a particular pattern just kind of winging it.

Of course, I had to hide the ends which was a lot more fiddly than I like. But I like the overall look. I decided to make it a wall hanging and cut a piece of bamboo to tie it to. You can’t tell from the picture, but it’s hanging on a light gold wall. Sorry about the shadow .

It took me a lot longer than anticipated. But I’m happy with the results. I may try another to felt. But I don’t see myself investing any larger looms. I admire those of you who have the patience to dress a loom and weave away.